mizgnomer's Full Review: Compass CB530MMO Booster Car Seat
My 6 year old has reached an age where he has friends in the neighborhood who come to visit (and he goes to visit them). There have been a few times where I've wanted to run out to a restaurant or over to the ice cream parlor with my kids plus one friend in tow -- but we couldn't because we didn't have enough car seats. I had decided to go buy an additional booster just to have on-hand for this type of thing when the opportunity arose to test the Compass Folding Adjustable Ultimate Booster, so I jumped at the chance. When the seat arrived the question arose -- which booster would become my son's seat, and which would become the "spare"?
Product Description:
The Compass Folding Adjustable Ultimate Booster is a belt-positioning booster, meaning the seat works with your car's built-in shoulder and lap seat belts to protect your child during an accident. The booster's base and back help position the seat belts properly across the hips and chest of their small bodies. The Compass Booster works for children weighing between 30 and 100 pounds, and who are between 38 and 57 inches tall.
One feature of the Compass that we had not seen before is its ability to fold for storage. When you lift up on the special handle in back, the seat's base/bottom is released from its locked-open position to lift up and lie flush against the seat's back. This makes it convenient for storage or for throwing into your truck if you have non-child passengers, as well as making it more convenient for carrying if you are taking it with you on vacation.
The seat has plenty of other features too. There are two arm rests that can be flipped up and out of the way as your child climbs into the seat. There are also two built-in cup/snack holders that slide in and out at the base of the seat. Much like our Britax carseats, there's a handy-dandy place for the user's manual attached right on the back of the seat, which is great for ensuring that the instructions are never misplaced. There are various built-in handles on the seat that can be used when to make transporting this booster just that much easier. There are narrow rails on the bottom of the booster seat that aid in properly positioning the booster in cars with narrower seats. This was quite helpful when installing the seat in my husband's vehicle, which has oddly padded back seats with fairly narrow areas sculpted down into the seat padding.
The Compass' headrest is large and well padded with EPS foam. The headrest protrudes on each side around the occupant's head, not only protecting your child in the event of a side-impact collision but also giving them a place to rest their heads if they nap in the seat during your travels. There are 6 different height-settings for the headrest/back that can be used as your child grows.
The seat cover can be easily removed for washing, however the cover is not machine washable. It is recommended that you hand wash the cover with water and mild soap, then allow it to air dry.
There was no assembly required. The seat works fine straight out of the box.
The seat is not certified for aircraft use.
Our Thoughts and Experiences:
Most parents switch their kids to a booster seat as they outgrow their conventional car seat (usually after turning 3 years old). My son had to be difficult though -- always extremely tall for his age, he outgrew his conventional car seat shortly after he turned two (when he was far too young to be trusted to sit safely in a belt-positioning booster), so we had to opt for a massively huge carseat instead (we went with the Britax Husky at the time). Now at age 6 he's still off the charts in height, which is why the Compass has turned out to be such a great booster for him. It does seem to be geared toward taller children, and as such has a higher headrest and wider seat than his older booster. Our younger child (who is not yet ready for a booster seat) will probably not be able to use the Compass any time soon. Our youngest is consistently average in height for his age, and probably won't reach the low-height restriction of 38 inches tall until he's well into his 3rd year (which is fine, as he won't outgrow his conventional car seat until around that time anyway).
With my super-tall 6 year old we typically had his other booster (a Graco TurboBooster) at nearly the highest setting. On the TurboBooster the shoulder harness slots are essentially on the bottom of the headrest, so when raising it to keep the seat belt positioned properly over his shoulder the booster's back would leave a big gap between the top of the back support and the bottom of the headrest -- essentially leaving his shoulders/upper-back unsupported (and unprotected). The Compass doesn't work that way. Instead, it has back pieces that overlap, so when you raise the headrest there's still support along the entire back of the seat, which not only looks more comfortable but I'm willing to bet it makes the entire seat more sturdy as well.
We allowed my eldest to choose which booster would be his (and which would be the "backup"/friends booster), and the one he chose for his daily car-riding needs was the Compass Folding Adjustable Ultimate Booster. He likes it because he sits up higher and because he finds it to be more padded and comfy than his other booster. He also prefers the arm rests (he says they look more "space age").
Before my husband read the entire instruction manual and realized that you could take the seat cover off, his biggest complaint about the seat was that when he removed the tags that were attached when we took the seat from its box, one end of the little white plastic tab that held the tags in place remained in the seat. My son tried out the seat and the sharp little tab poked through the seat cover, puncturing his skin! That's one reason why is pays to read the manual -- after Daddy fretted and complained that the uncomfortable tab was embedded in the seat forever, Mommy read the manual and learned that we could simply lift up part of the seat cover and retrieve the other half of the plastic tab so my son was no longer poked (what is it with men and instructions anyway!?!)
I am rather bothered by the fact that the seat cover isn't machine washable. It's not that big of a deal until you have one really bad incident. We'd gone for years without washing our car seat covers, but then my youngest had a particularly bad "tossing of the cookies" incident in his Britax seat not too long ago, and I was thanking my lucky stars that we could simply throw that cover in the washing machine. There was simply no way I could have gotten it clean again by hand.
The only feature our other booster has that the Compass doesn't is the ability to completely remove the back, turning the booster seat into a "backless booster". Overall I don't have a problem with this. While the Compass with its non-removable back will always take up more room in the car than a backless booster, it also accommodates taller children anyway so the need to go backless is less pressing. Additionally, I like having the side-impact protection that the Compass' headrest provides, and my son likes having a place to rest his head when we travel in the car.
I really love the colors and style on our Compass seat. Ours is the "Misty Morning" color scheme, which is mostly black with blue & gray highlights and some highly reflective piping that shows up well even when the car's interior is only dimly lit. It is a perfect design for my boys (because the darker colors hide their messier mishaps) and goes nicely in my car with its gray interior. There are other designs/colors available too. I find the look of our booster to be quite sporty, trendy, and stylish. I really couldn't be happier with the overall look of the seat.
Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) Fits a wide range of weights (30 - 100 pounds)
+) Fits taller children (38 to 57 inches tall)
+) Trendy, stylish design
+) Seat folds closed for storage/portability
+) Well cushioned
+) Large padded headrest with 6 height settings
+) Seat back supports the child's entire back even on the highest setting
+) Bottom rails aid in properly positioning booster in narrower seats
+) Flip-up arm rests
+) 2 build-in, retractable cup holders
+) Built-in handles for portability
+) User manual storage built into seat's back
Cons:
-) Seat cover is not machine washable
-) Cannot convert to a "backless" booster
Final Thoughts:
I figured that the Compass Folding Adjustable Ultimate Booster would make a great back-up booster seat for us, and that the "folding" feature would make it handy to store whenever it wasn't in use. Little did I know that it would immediately become my son's favorite seat... and my favorite seat for him to use as well! I have been very pleasantly surprised by this booster and recommend it highly.
We received our Compass Folding Adjustable Ultimate Booster from Learning Curve in exchange for our unbiased review.
The Ultra Folding Booster Car Seat folds easily to fit into busy life, so its ready when you need it. Features no gap back when the height is adjusted...More at Toys R Us
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